


Selfless

by Bboisawesome



Category: Milo Murphy’s Law
Genre: I just screw around in tags, I really hope this makes even a semblance of sense, Is death a dream? Is it real? I no tell, Maybe graphic violence I just put it there in case, Starts off kind of fluffy, What else can I randomly type and hopefully it sounds angsty, Will I ever write anything beside angst probably not, i can write i swear, you might cry idk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-28
Updated: 2020-11-28
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:21:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,041
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27758308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bboisawesome/pseuds/Bboisawesome
Summary: After all, Dakota wasn’t selfish, he was selfless.
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

They weren’t time travelers anymore.  
They were stranded, with no way to the past or future, every decision was set in stone the minute it was made.  
Every decision held a consequence that couldn’t be changed. A consequence that would not bend, or more accurately they were no longer able to bend it.  
No longer able to bend time to suit their agenda, to allow a second chance in order to avoid disaster.

Disaster. 

That’s what worried him most about this situation.  
Any other normal person would not worry so much about changing their actions or someone else’s.  
People worried about their actions...but not like this.  
He had avoided it for so long. But it was no longer an option to avoid. It was an option to expect...to sit and wait for, like a mouse stuck in a glue trap. The mouse can only sit and wait for the embrace of death.  
Dakota could only wait for disaster...only wait for the most likely outcome of death. It had happened so many times before, it was unreasonable to expect that it would suddenly stop being a problem. 

So this situation did bother him. But it’s not like he was about to admit it. While he could, Dakota was going to do his best to avoid confronting that concern, even if he had to avoid it for years. But he doubted it would take that long.

“Are you even listening to me!?” A loud voice penetrated Dakota’s thoughts.

Dakota looked up at Cavendish and smiled. “Of course I was listening.” Cavendish rolled his eyes with an exasperated sigh. It seemed that was one of the last sentences Cavendish was going to believe, especially from Dakota’s mouth.

“Really? Then what was I just talking about?” Cavendish inquired, tapping his foot and crossing his arms with visible irritation. Dakota smiled and picked at some dry skin around his fingers.

“Lunch.” He shrugged and itched his ear. “I don’t see why it’d be anything else Cav, cause I am starving.” Dakota knew that probably wasn’t the answer, but he didn’t see why that wouldn’t be a perfectly reasonable answer. Though knowing Cavendish he was sure he’d be mad either way.

Cavendish opened his mouth, raising a finger in the air. Dakota smirked, waiting for the lecture and lengthy explanation of why listening to Cavendish was so important. He waited for Cav to drag on about what he was saying, every detail that Dakota could’ve missed because he wasn’t listening and how irresponsible it was for him not to pay attention while they were on the job.  
“Actually! Well, actually that would be partially correct… alright you get partially correct points! But you weren’t listening all the way so still some shame on you Dakota!” Dakota smiled and widened his eyes.

“What!? No way! I actually got part of it right? I mean...of course I did. Cause I was partially listening, apparently…” Dakota stuck one hand in his pocket and smiled as he picked up the last bit of trash and listened to Cavendish drag on and on with his supposedly less lengthy lecture. This trash seemed rather strange though, more than the rest of the alien garbage they had been picking up all day, it almost looked like a remote, or communicator. Dakota squinted his eyes as he poked the object. A bony hand snatched it from him as soon as he did.

“Don’t go around poking and prodding these devices Dakota! They could be dangerous or delicate, or- or….something not desirable!!” Cavendish berated as he waved the alien trash in the air. 

Dakota frowned and grabbed for it. “Well then maybe you shouldn’t be holding onto it and waving it around like that, huh?” Dakota reached for it again, but to no avail. Cavendish raised an eyebrow and held the object out of Dakota’s reach.

“What exactly does that mean?” Dakota winced, realizing his choice of words. This was gonna take some smooth talking. 

“Nothing. I just meant that if it’s as dangerous as you say...you shouldn’t swing it around like that Cav. Nothing else...nothing.” 

“Yes! But you also said that I shouldn’t be holding it!” Cavendish fussed as he held it further away from Dakota.

“It was a bad choice of words.” Dakota lazily jumped and tried to reach for the device. “Besides I want to look at this thing, it looks cool.” Dakota did his best to change the subject, after all out of conversation hopefully equaled out of Cavendish’s mind. Cavendish shoved him away and held him at arms length.

“If we are going to look at it, I’ll hold onto it and we can both inspect this device together.” Cav gave a stern look that melted away any stubbornness Dakota possessed. 

“Alright, alright.” 

“Good. Now let’s take a look shall we?”

The men knelt down as Cavendish opened his hands to reveal more of the object. It was rectangular and grey, but it seemed to have a faint glow emanating from the seams that held the device together, along with one long antenna protruding from the top and a blinking light in the corner

“Kinda looks like a walkie talkie.” Dakota smiled as he imitated a static sound. “Pppsshhkkk. Aliens, this is Dakota, do you copy? How good is the food in space? Over.” Cavendish glared while Dakota continued to smile like he was the proudest man alive. 

“Sometimes you amaze me...in strange,strange ways.” 

“I’ll take that as a compliment.”

“I would not.”

“Too bad. It’s been done Cav.”

Cavendish sighed and brought his attention back to the device in his hand. “Well, the device does not appear to be doing anything…” He huffed and straightened his hat as he inspected the device more.

“Maybe it’s broken. I mean we are picking up alien trash.”

“I suppose that could be true. But this light in the corner is blinking! That has to mean something.”

“Eh, I’m sure it’s nothing Cav. Broken things blink all the time.”

“Uh...well, well, yes I-I suppose you could be right.” Dakota roughly patted Cav on the back and smiled. 

“Cool nothing to worry about then.” Dakota smiled, grabbed the device from Cavendish and threw it in the garbage bag. Cavendish nodded.

“Alright! It appears that we have completed this task.”

“Hooray! Let’s get ice cream!” Dakota cheered and jumped into the passenger side of the car. Cavendish tied the trash bag, throwing it in the back and hopped into the drivers seat.

“Alright. I will indulge your eating habits tonight.” Cavendish smiled as he buckled up. Dakota did the same and let out another whoop of delight. He may have been feeling worried, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t grab some ice cream to distract him, and if he could bring Cavendish with him it was a bonus. 

Meanwhile, the device still flashed and began to let out a beeping sound, a sound too quiet for Dakota and Cavendish to hear.


	2. Chapter 2

Cavendish knew that he was suppose to be dead. He knew how many times Dakota had sacrificed himself just to keep him alive. It was the main reason they weren’t allowed to time travel anymore and why they were stuck in the past. Cavendish knew he could be selfish, especially when he had abandoned Dakota to investigate an abduction he had witnessed and find the alien ship responsible. He had left him all alone, without a word. He didn’t even think about how worried he would’ve been. Cavendish had promised he’d be more careful, but he lied, he acted selfishly and endangered himself. 

It was funny. Selfish was a word he used to associate with Dakota. Dakota was lazy, he barely tried at their job, he ate way too much food even if it belonged to Cavendish and he made Cavendish pay for that food, a lot. But that word got smacked back in his face after learning about the island of Dakota’s. Sometimes he still had trouble processing it. There were multiple Dakota’s, and almost all of them had seen him die, but his Dakota had seen almost every death. It was a chilling thought to think about, he figured it had to be even worse to go through.

Even with that revelation Cavendish still found himself being selfish. He often wondered why he did that, why after all they had gone through and how many times he had died, why he would risk himself and Dakota’s hard work. Deep down he knew exactly why.

He wanted to be a hero.

He wanted to save people and change lives!

He wanted to make something of himself!

But it was clear that would never really happen. Not publicly anyway. Dakota had assured him that helping save the world from Pistachions and helping Milo save that alien planet made him the greatest hero he knew. Cavendish had appreciated the sentiment, but he couldn’t help but feel that without recognition his efforts had amounted to nothing. Cavendish knew that that was probably not true, and he knew he probably shouldn’t even focus on that feeling at all, so he decided to remind himself. To remind himself that Dakota was correct, he was a hero even if it didn’t always feel like it. And now that he knew he was a hero, he had wondered what his new goals would be. Obviously some priorities would have to be rearranged.

So after deep thought Cavendish had decided to dedicate himself to a new mission. Besides being great at their job as alien trash men, he was also determined to stay alive. If he died now when there was no time machine available to them, then what was Dakota’s sacrifice for? 

And yet, every time it annoyed him to no end when Dakota would insinuate that Cavendish would just up and die! He couldn’t help but feel offended and at the same time he supposed he couldn’t blame Dakota for thinking that way.  
It was difficult to accept he could die so easily, but some stories Cavendish heard had convinced him that he was super easy to kill, whether he liked it or not. 

In the end, Cavendish felt slightly bad for his little outburst towards Dakota, so he decided to indulge his partners need for ice cream. 

Cavendish drove into a parking lot, parking the car and hopping out. He stared at the restaurant ahead of them, which just happened to have some of Dakota’s favourite ice cream.

“Ooh! Cav you spoil me!” Dakota gave a wide smile as he realized where they were. Cavendish gave a slight smile back.

“Yes well, I supposed you’d want a little more than ice cream on this outing.”

“You would guess correct!” 

Cavendish strolled into the restaurant as Dakota practically rushed his way to the door. The only time Dakota seemed to willingly run was to get food, and even then it was almost never a full sprint. Cavendish took Dakota’s rush to enter as a good sign, meaning he had picked just the right restaurant, he just hoped it would be enough to apologize for his behaviour.

The small establishment was nice, very quaint in Cavendish’s eyes, and the aroma that filled the small space even made his mouth water. But just a little. The two men took a decent sized booth in the corner of the store, next to a window, because Dakota liked to watch the cars pass by and chat about how the colors blurred and mixed when two cars passed each other, usually to make some ugly shade of brown which Dakota would then analyze in excruciatingly precise detail.

But Cavendish was indulging him to apologize, so he figured he could suffer for a little bit.

“And that’s why those two cars made less of a purple and more of a brown, because the background mixed with it as it blurred, along with the windows and tires. I’ve got this thing down to a science Cav I swear!” Dakota made an okay sign with both his hands as he emphasized the word science. Cavendish nodded and rang his hands around his drink. Dakota noticed and furrowed his brows together with a small worried huff. “You good Cav?”

Cavendish snapped out of it and mentally slapped himself. How could he be so daft!? He was supposed to be apologizing to Dakota, not making him worry! “Ah yes! Sorry, I just…” Cavendish sighed and collected his thoughts, “I just wanted to apologize for my behaviour with the device earlier today, and every other time I seem to get a little peeved when you mention dangers to me, I suppose I-“ Dakota cut him off with a swift hand signal.

“No need Cav. I ain’t taking it personal.”

“You didn’t even let me finish! You don’t even know why I’m fully apologizing!”

“You’re getting a little irritated over every time I insinuate you might die.”

Cavendish stared in silence for a minute while he crossed his arms. “Well...yes that is correct. But you could have at least let me finish apologizing!” He huffed. Dakota chuckled and rubbed the back of his neck.

“No, cause there’s no need to apologize. It’s probably annoying. I know that, I just-“

“Started worrying on instinct and now it’s even worse since you can’t go back in time anymore to save me if I die?” Dakota smirked and gave out a soft chuckle.

“Yeah, something like that. We doing that today, finishing each other’s sentences?” Dakota waved his hand between them as he pointed, Cavendish shoved his hand on the table. 

“You know I don’t like when you-“

“Eat monkey butts! Got it, finished it perfectly!”

“Dakota.” Cavendish grumbled and rubbed his eyes with a frown.

“Alright now you do me!”

“Dakota.”

“Come on it’ll be fun!”

“DAKOTA!” Cavendish snapped, louder than he meant to, some heads turned to look at the two. Cavendish slumped to hide behind the seat and sighed, lowering his voice. “Can we finish our conversation first?” 

Dakota nodded. “Let’s just call it even Cav. We can both be annoying, no hard feelings about it, yeah?”

Cavendish figured that’s as far as he’d get with Dakota. After all, Dakota wasn’t selfish, he was selfless. “Yeah…” Cavendish echoed and shook his partners hand. 

“Now let’s eat! And I can tell you about this blurred car color I saw the other day that looked just like a giraffe!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I rambled even more in this one. Then again I feel Cavendish might ramble as well, so maybe it fits? 😂


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oops

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where things may get graphic-ish. Also brief descriptions of grief and there is death so you have been warned! 
> 
> I did my best, and I kind of like this chapter. Just hope it sounds alright. 😅  
> It’s not long but I didn’t want it to feel too long.

It had all happened so fast. Everything was crumbling around him and all he could do was sit there and cry. 

The ride was going so well, it was normal and calm. The sense of contentment lingered between the two men as they discussed various topics. Trivial topics, but each one mattered to them. 

Every single word mattered.

Suddenly the beeping got louder, at first Cavendish was sure he was imagining the sound, but Dakota began to hear it too. Cavendish insisted that the sound prompted an investigation. 

He pulled over the car.

Cavendish got out of the vehicle.

Dakota stayed. 

Cavendish had distanced himself enough, so that when the beam hit the car, only the explosion hurt him. Cavendish was bleeding but not severely.

Dakota didn’t seem so lucky. Cavendish found him amongst the rubble, broken and almost unrecognizable.

He wasn’t breathing.

There was no way he could be. Most of him was gone. In just an instant Dakota was ripped away. The sense of contentment was ripped away. Everything was replaced with a bitter, sour feeling. It hurt to see, and yet Cavendish found himself repeating one sentence. “Please don’t die.”

Everything else happened in a blur as all his concentration was focused on the man on the ground, the man in his arms, the man in a body bag.

P.I.G had disposed of the mess and tended to their wounds. Actually it was only Cavendish’s wounds. They didn’t even try with Dakota.

Cavendish wanted an answer. He wanted an explanation for this disaster, but his thoughts could barely connect to make words, his sentences came out as stuttering sounds and broken cries. Nothing made sense anymore, not even his own words. 

He waited weeks. Dakota had been gone for weeks. Cavendish was not even fully healed in weeks. 

And an answer finally came after all those excruciatingly long days.

“It was a homing beacon, used for an alien armada that was in the back of the truck. It was connected to an alien satellite, and it sent out some sort of signal. The satellite was programmed to shoot when the message was sent for a certain amount of time. To destroy any dangers and any allies that remained, in order to protect sensitive information from being leaked.”

Cavendish didn’t want to accept that.

“I’m sorry for your loss.”

He didn’t want to believe it.

“I’m sure he’s in a better place now.”

He didn’t want to listen.

“It was all a big accident, it was a tragedy. But I believe this shows how careful we all have to be in the future.”

How could something so random? So unrelated to Dakota and Cavendish, something that had no grudge or relation to them, just suddenly take him away! Just take him and leave Cavendish behind with no one! 

No friends.

No family in the past.

There was nothing here for him. 

He wasn’t sure how he would move on. He was pretty sure he never would.

Dakota was selfless. He was amazing. He was the best friend who was always by Cavendish’s side. He was the man who stared at blurred colors and described them in excruciating detail. He was the man who stuffed his mouth with way too much food and still had room for seconds. He was the one who was laid back, who was chill, who knew how to relax. He was the guy who annoyed Cavendish until he was at his wits end, but still crawled his way back with enough charm that Cavendish endured it. But he also held a hefty responsibility, one he was sure he never would have shared voluntarily. 

He was everything Cavendish thought he was, but also the complete opposite. 

And now…

He was gone.

But maybe, he wasn’t gone forever.

**Author's Note:**

> I proof read a million times but it was always at like 2 in the morning, so I hope this makes sense. I might have rambled.


End file.
